If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

With the return of Antonio McDyess, the Knicks have some spare parts they could move. They have a shot at the playoffs right now, but with a little extra juice, they could be a contender.

How?
The Knicks, for the first time in awhile, have some tradeable assets. Charlie Ward is playing well and is in the last year of his contract. Kurt Thomas is among the league leaders in rebounding, and plenty of teams have interest in Doleac, who just so happens to be in the last year of his deal, too. Could a combo of Ward and Doleac help the Knicks swing a deal for a younger player like Derek Anderson? With the Blazers looking for cap space, they'd seriously consider a deal like that.

December 5, 2003 -- PORTLAND - Knick GM Scott Layden has always viewed Dec. 15 as an important date. The midpoint of December is when free agents and draft choices who signed contracts over the summer become eligible to be traded - opening up a whole new set of opportunities.
As the Knicks search other teams' rosters for potentially available shooting guards to play a backup role, one name sticks out - Atlanta's combo guard Jason Terry, about whom Layden had inquired last season.

Terry, who can't be dealt until Dec. 15 after the Hawks matched the Jazz' offer sheet in September, starts for Atlanta at point guard. But nobody considers him a true point.

Terry could fill the Knicks' need for a backup shooting guard and could play some minutes at PG, allowing turnover-prone Howard Eisley to sit.

The Knicks seem to have enough pawns to draw Atlanta's interest since the Hawks are getting new owners, are going nowhere this season, are looking to be under the cap in two years and are overpaying Terry.

Remember, Hawk GM Billy King dispatched Glenn Robinson in the Latrell Sprewell four-team deal to inherit the $11 million contract of retiring Terrell Brandon as a cost-cutting move that gives them future cap-room flexibility.

Atlanta will shed two big contracts from its cap the summer after this one - Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff. Othella Harrington, being shopped, also has his deal up in two years. Frank Williams' rookie deal expires in two years. Michael Doleac's is up after this season, as is Charlie Ward's.

The Knicks insist they will not move their draft picks, Mike Sweetney and Maciej Lampe, whose contracts can be traded Dec. 15. But 7-foot-5 Slavko Vranes could intrigue a rebuilder.

Terry, who was signed to a three-year, $22 million package, is a bundle of talent, averaging 18.7 points on 45 percent shooting. But he's got his critics and probably is better suited for a smaller role.

Another shooting guard who becomes trade-eligible Dec. 15 on a smaller scale is Denver's reigning Western Conference Player of the Week, Voshon Lenard, but Layden has only spoken to the Nuggets about Rodney White.

i'd take jason terry also, no question about it, but i keep thinking: we have good players, good team, but trades won't take us anywhere. nothing good ever happened to us since layden took over. i say we play williams, doleac and the rookies more often, and try to create a team for Christ's sake!